Sam Gunn Jr.

by Ben Bova, Claire Bloom (Director)

Overview

The final completed novel by Ben Bova

Intergalactic explorer, venture capitalist, and Casanova Sam Gunn may be gone, but his legacy lives on in his son, Sam Gunn Jr.

In his first-ever adventure, Sam Gunn Jr. sets off to fulfill his father’s left-behind mission of interplanetary enterprising. He soon learns his father’s shoes are tough to fill, but he is up for the task. Junior takes a journey through the stars, falling in love with beautiful women and leaving his unique mark everywhere he ventures. Soon, however, this trip through the universe takes a dangerous turn when Junior lands on Saturn and learns about a recent scientific discovery that will change everything, possibly forever.

Will he be able to save the universe and live up to his father’s name? Take an unforgettable ride through space in master sci-fi author Ben Bova’s exciting novel!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212184663
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	03/07/2023
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ben Bova (1932–2020), American author of more than one hundred books of science fact and fiction, was awarded posthumously the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. His work earned six Hugo Awards. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, and his novel Titan won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science fiction novel of 2006. In his early career, he was a technical editor for Project Vanguard, the United States’s first effort to launch a satellite into space in 1958. He then was a science writer for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, which built the heat shields for the Apollo 11 module. He held the position of president emeritus of the National Space Society and served as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Claire Bloom gained international fame in 1951 with her screen debut in Charles Chaplin’s motion picture Limelight. Among her many memorable films are Richard III, The Haunting, Look Back in Anger, and A Doll’s House.

Editorial Reviews

No one has done more to keep the dream of space alive in science fiction than Ben Bova.”

Wall Street Journal

Sam Gunn Jr. is a romp, a lovingly written, entertaining gem of an SF novel that takes the old ideals of a capitalist Space Race culture, builds them big, and then builds them bigger.”

SFFWorld.com

A riveting ride through the early years of interplanetary settlement, full of surprises and impossible to put down. Loved it.”

award-winning science fiction author Jack McDevitt

01/10/2022

Multiple Hugo Award winner Bova (1932–2020) does not burnish his reputation with this turgid sequel to 1998’s Sam Gunn Forever; it lacks the plausible science of his best work and is burdened by an overbusy plot and female characters that are mostly sex objects. On a far future Earth, the 19-year-old title character is stunned to learn, on his mother’s deathbed, that his father was the legendary Sam Gunn, an adventurer and “space entrepreneur,” famous for “wooing beautiful women while he built an interplanetary corporation.” His mother dies destitute, but Gunn Jr. bluffs his way into accessing his father’s assets even before a blood test establishes proof of their relationship. The Moon-based S. Gunn Enterprises is also struggling financially, forcing Gunn Jr. to undertake a number of risky ventures to stay afloat, including creating a museum on Mars with exhibits depicting the mistaken predictions about what life on that planet would look like, and a scantily clad robot based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Martian princess. The episodic plot fizzles and the prose never rises above being serviceable. The most devoted fans of the original might find something to enjoy here, but everyone else will be unimpressed. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly